Dating, letters and Hippogriffs
by knitterlywitch
Summary: Neville, with the help of a former professor, finally works up the  nerve to ask out Luna Lovegood during his fifth year. But with all the turmoil around them, can their relationship really last? Luna/Neville and hinted Remus/Sirius. A gift for a friend.


_Dear Remus, November 12th_

_Hello, it's Neville. Sorry for not writing to you more quickly, but Harry has been doing something lately and needed my help, so I wasn't able to have a free moment until now. To answer your question from the last letter, my Gran is fine, as am I. I'm getting decent marks in potions, like you told me I needed if I wanted to be an auror. Luna Lovegood is tutoring me in them. I'm still not sure how a person a year below me can be better at potions than I am. Professor Snape is sure Hermione is just helping me, though, so whether I'll pass or not is still unsure. _

_How are you? Hope all is well with you and your houseguest you told me about. Have you found a job yet? Fred and George Weasley just opened a prank shop in Diagon alley if and you hadn't and they told me they're hiring. _

_I hate to ask, but I have a question; it's not school-related or about my parents, but you're really the only person I trust enough to ask, since, you know, I can't ask my Dad and my Gran would just be angry I'm 'skiving off on my schoolwork for the first girl I fancy' . I want to ask Luna, the girl who is tutoring me, (I'm not sure if you taught her), to Hogsmead for tea… not as friends, though, as a date. But I don't know how to do it and I'm nervous I'll muck it up. I've asked Ginny Weasley to the Yule ball last year, but that was more because she wanted to go and couldn't unless I asked her, so it was easier._

_I hope I'm not overstepping our friendship, but could you give me an idea of how to ask her? Please? I'm mad about her and I really have no one else I trust to ask for help. I hope this isn't too awkward._

_Hope I get to see you some time soon,_

_Neville Longbottom. _

Remus looked down at the letter in his hand and smiled slightly. He was always glad when Neville, or any of his old students, wrote to him.

"Letter from Harry?" inquired Sirius, leaning over Remus' shoulder to get a glance.

"No, Neville, Frank and Alice's son; I taught him at Hogwarts. He's a Gryffindor in Harry's year. He and a couple other students from when I was teaching at Hogwarts write me sometimes. I find it almost funny he writes to me more than Harry does."

Sirius clucked his teeth, mumbled something about how Harry needed to develop better writing habits and then turned his attention back to the chocolate-chip muffin his cousin, Tonks, brought him. "Would you like a bite of this, then, Moony?" he offered, peeling back the wrapper.

"While that muffin _does_ look quite good, I think I shall have to pass, Padfoot. Young Mr Longbottom needs my help in wooing a young woman," said Remus. Sometimes, when things were like this, he could almost forget how bad this house was and Sirius almost became his old self. It always warmed Remus' heart to see it.

"Why'd he pick you? You've never asked a bird anywhere."

Remus had asked women out before, mostly while Sirius was _away,_ Remus hated saying 'in Azkaban', but as Sirius had never heard about them, and seemed to think bisexuality was something of a myth, he simply laughed, "He trusts me. And his Gran'ed go crazy if she found out he was trying to see a girl she didn't hand-pick, so he can't ask her."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Sirius distracted by his muffin, Remus by his letter, until Sirius asked, "So, who's the girl? Do I know her parents?"

"It's Lovegood, the bloke who runs the Quibbler, his daughter, Luna. She writes to me sometimes too. Sweet girl, a little eccentric, but sweet."

"Oh," nodded Sirius, "So, what are you going to tell him?"

"Read for yourself," said Remus, handing the letter across the table to his, for lack of a better word, friend.

Sirius took the letter, read it for a few moments and then handed it back to Remus. "No mention of love potions? Where's your sense of Marauderdom?" he inquired, wearing a small, playful smile.

"You know," said Remus, mirroring the expression Sirius wore, "I might of actually considered it if Neville were less rubbish at potions. With how poor he is at it, he might accidently poison her. Aside, the girl he is asking is so desperate to be liked, like I was in first year, that she'll say yes."

Remus placed the letter in a small Muggle envelope, rose from the kitchen table, walked over to the window ledge where the owl sat, tied the letter to her leg and sent the bird on her way back towards Hogwarts.

* * *

><p>Neville sat sadly at breakfast. He had woken up late, so he was eating with the other stragglers. He had no plans for this weekend, other than a DA meeting tonight, so he had no idea what he would be doing until then. Luckily one of the stragglers was Luna Lovegood, who sat three tables away reading a book. Though Neville was too shy to go over and talk to her, he imagined he was able to. Imagine talking to her.<p>

The last few owls fluttered into the great hall, including the owl Neville had sent to Remus'. The owl flew over to the Gryffindor table and landed in the kippers, helping himself to one or two.

"I know you love fish, but I was going to eat some of those!" said Neville, shooing the bird off the plate, grabbing a few of the small fish and setting them on the clean plate next to him. "Now, can I get the letter?" he asked.

The small bird held out his leg, and promptly dug into the kippers Neville had placed on the plate.

Neville undid the envelope nervously, his eyes darting up every couple seconds to make sure Luna wasn't watching him. His hands shook a little, but he finally managed to fish the letter out of the envelope and unfold it. He started to read.

_Dear Neville, _

_Don't worry, the question wasn't awkward at all and I felt honoured you trusted me enough to ask. _

_I'll give you the same advice I gave a former friend when he asked me for help asking out a girl when I was your age. Take deep breaths. Dress nicely, but comfortably; if you're not comfortable, you'll be even more nervous. By the by, nicely is not, despite what many boys your age think, synonymous with 'drenched in enough cologne to gag a small hippogriff'. You want to ask her out, not kill her. Be polite and don't push. If you think, even for a second, that what you're doing would seem a little 'creepy' if it were to be done to you, stop doing it. _

_Don't ask her in front of many people; she may feel obligated to go even if she doesn't want to, and while that might seem okay at first, you don't want to go out with someone who doesn't actually want to go out with you. _

_Even if you're convinced Luna is 'the one', don't push her. James Potter, one of my best friends at school didn't get Lily Evans to go out with him until, after five years of pushing her; he stopped and let her be. Things always work out for the best._

_The best thing to do is follow your heart._

_Good Luck_

_Tell me how it goes,_

_Remus. _

Neville looked at the hall around him; other than Filch skulking around the edge of the room, he and Luna were alone. He wore what his Gran called his 'church jumper', that was, his jumper for special occasions. Was that nice enough? Well, there was only one way to tell.

He stood up, grabbing his courier bag as he did, pulled down his jumper and fixed his tie. He took a step towards Luna's table…and promptly tripped and landed flat on his face. He tried to control the self-loathing which flooded his mind and simply pull himself up, but before he had the chance, he saw a pair of teal Mary-Janes standing in front of him.

"Are you alright, Neville?" asked Luna quietly, "Do you need a hand up?"

"Yeah, that'd be nice, thanks Luna," said Neville giving her his hand. She helped him up and then he blurted out, "Would you like to go to Hogsmead with me? As… err…. A date? Today?"

"Alright Neville," said Luna with a smile, "I'll meet you outside in an hour and a half."

"By the front doors?" asked Neville.

Luna smiled and nodded, then, still smiling, she walked away, looking a little happier and holding her books tight to her chest.

Neville rushed upstairs to the Gryffindor boy's dormitory. He had to get ready. There were so many things to do and so little time to do it. He walked into the room and saw it was empty, except for Seamus, who was lazily reading a comic book in bed.

"Seamus, could you help me with something?" asked Neville nervously.

"What is it, mate?" Seamus asked, looking a little amused at how, for a lack of a better word, excited, Neville seemed.

"I have a date with Luna in an hour. Could you help me pick out something to wear?"

Seamus laughed, "Luna as in that head-case in Ravenclaw, Lovegood? You could be wearing a paper sack and she'd still be blithering on about some nonsense or another like nothing was different."

"Please, Seamus, be a mate and help me. I'm crazy for her and I really don't want to spoil this.

"What's in it for me?" enquired Seamus, getting out of bed finally.

"Good karma, you selfish berk," replied Dean, walking out of the showers, "if Seamus is going to be an arsehole, then I'll help you. Hold these," he said, thrusting the soaps and hair products he had taken with him into the shower into Neville's arms.

"I say," said Dean, digging in Neville's trunk, "you wear this."

Dean laid the outfit, black trousers, a heavily cabled aubergine-coloured waistcoat his gran made him for Christmas, a black collared shirt and a pair of heavily polished leather loafers with tassels. "You'll look totally ace in that," said Dean when he was finished. "For once, my sisters babbling on about fashion was helpful."

"Thanks, mate, you're brill," said Neville, walking into the lavatory to change into his new outfit. Even after five years of living with the other boys, he still hadn't gotten use to the idea of changing in front of them.

When he walked back out to the dormitory a few minutes later, he saw Dean and Seamus digging through Seamus' rather large box of cologne samples his father sent him.

"Which d'you like better?" inquired Dean, holding out two bottles from the box, "This one, or this one?"

He shoved the two bottles under Neville's nose. Both smelt, to Neville at least, like rotting wood. "I don't need cologne, I think, thanks," he said with a smile, remembering what Remus said.

"What about cufflinks?" asked Seamus, noticing there were no buttons on the wrists of the shirt Dean had picked out. "I have some really cool silver ones shaped like naked ladies my cousin Fergus sent me."

"I don't think cufflinks shaped like naked women fit the _classy _image our friend Neville is trying to present," said Dean. "I have a set I could lend you."

"I got a pair," said Neville, pulling a red velvet box from his trunk. He opened the box and took out two small cufflinks shaped like the Gryffindor house crest. "They were my Dad's. Mum gave them to him for their first wedding anniversary."

There was an awkward silence for a few moments, then, Neville looked down at his watch and decided he should be early to meet Luna.

"Good luck, mate," called Dean as Neville walked out of the room.

"Yeah, good luck," agreed Seamus, "And remember, if she goes nutzo on you, punch her in the tities and run!"


End file.
